A hero's guide - Captain Cosmic

Other Games SotM Game Engine
#1

A Heroes guide to Captain Cosmic
 
Hey everyone, this is my first hero guide, so consider this a work in progress.
 
Version 1.0
 
---Version history---
 
1.0: First version!
1.1: Added section about team ups with Mr. Fixer and in overview.
1.2: A long overdue spell check.
---------------------
 
With Wrath of the Cosmos unleashed, it is time to take a look at the two new heroes (three if you count Guise but hes a mini expansion) we have to play with. This guide is centered around our Green Lantern stand in Captain Cosmic!
 
Stats
HP: 27
Nemesis: Infinitor, Empyreon, Galactra, Balarian
Base Power: Fabrication - Reveal the top card of your deck. Put it into play or into your hand.
 
A brief overview
 
Captain Cosmic's role in battle is Support: He's going to be spending a lot of time setting up with the occasional attack via Construct destruction.
 

A major weakness of Captain Cosmic is that while he is good at supporting his team on the battlefield, he has no way to handle anything that is not a target. Environment and Ongoing destruction is something he on his own cannot do. On the batlefield is a different story as he gives the team several opportunities to hit more often.

 
Fabrication pun here
Cosmic will be getting a lot of mileage here. Fabrication either gives him a free play or a free draw. That is a very good power as it lets him at best get two constructs or two card draws. This is probably one of the most effective ways to get a full power Potent Disruption. Is also combos well if Cosmic has the Augmented Ally out. If the Ally is on himself and he has a second power to use (Cosmic Crest/Cosmic Weapon): discard a card to get a second power, then use Fabrication to draw a card. If he draws the card he Fabricates thats a +1 Draw so he can still do stuff while digging into his deck. Or he can play the card and will winds up doing more as he got two powers and one card play.
 
Cosmic Construction
 
Captain Cosmic's deck is unique compared to most of the other heroes, as his deck is very target heavy. The only other hero with this level of targets is Unity and her Mechanical Golems. Unlike Unity, Captain Cosmic can freely play his Constructs like any other card. Another important thing to note is their Keyword: They are Constructs, not Ongoing Constructs or Equipment Constructs. Right of the bat this allows him to dodge Ongoing/Equipment destruction sweeps like Dawn's Devastating Aurora and PROGENY's Beginning of the End.
 
Once you take a look at the Constructs you notice that they can do a lot. Many of them are played next to targets and grant some benefit to whomever they are given to. The important thing you may notice is that they have HP, and its the same amount: 4. These constructs will last about one or two turns if they attract enemy fire. If the choice is between playing a construct to draw lethal blows from a hero or not playing it, usually the correct choice is to play the Construct.
 
So, who should be given the constructs? well lets start by going over what they do:
 
* Cosmic Weapon
CW is by far one of the best Constructs out there. The Hero character whom wields it basically gets Young Legacy's base power. There are very few Heroes who don't want it because it's that good. By far the best recipients of the Weapon include AZ, Visionary, Argent Adept, and Captain Cosmic himself just to name a few.
 
** For AZ and Visionary, this lets them get in on the action instead of just sit around until they find their toys. AZ in particular can work wonders with it as he doesn't need his Moduels to fight back without geting hurt in the process. 
 
** Argent Adept can start laying the hurt as well if he has few options. Yes, having Argent attack is often the first sign things are going horribly wrong, but stay with me for a second. Musaragni's Harp + Inspiring Supertonic. Play the harp to get a Harmony Performance and a harmony accompaniment. Supertonic allows a power use by anyone and 2 HP if that happens. This in turn lets Argent swing the sword and heal 2 hp. And that is only if he has just the harp and the song. Again, Argent has better things to do than that, but that is just a thing to note.
 
* Autonomous Blade
The first time anyone (and by that I mean hero target) with this blade does damage, the Auto Blade deals 2 energy to anyone. This basically means that the first time they swing, they get a free 2 damage attack (Legacy anyone?) Anyone who constantly and consistently deals damage wants this: Chrono-Ranger, Ra, the Sentinels, Young Legacy , NightMist and Haka are just a few. Legacy and Finest Legacy, alongside Tachyon are probably low on the list.
 
A good thing to keep in mind is that the hero who should get this should be able to deal damage with a base power. That's why Chrono is on the top of my head high on the priority list for this one. Without buffs Chrono has a hard time getting past DR*. Personally i haven't played Chrono and Captain Cosmic on the same team: that honor goes to Fixer and Cosmic. A free 2 damage helps the old man out.
 
* Wounding Buffer
Grants anyone with it a 2 energy damage counter attack Ala Combat Stance and Flame Barrier. Give this to the hero serving as team meatshield. Energy Bracer is also a good choice to give to the same hero. Same things to watch out for when dealing with counter attacks: Do not put on anyone who can hurt themselves (that means you NightMist).
 
* Energy Bracer
Grants armor in the form of reducing damage dealt to the hero its on by 1. Noone is going to complain about this, though added precedence should be given to Bunker, Tempest, Legacy, Sky-Scrapper, and Omnitron-X, or anyone with DR in their decks. Most DR cards are limited so this helps them tank by giving them +2 with their armor up.
 
*Augmented Ally
I want to say that Augmented Ally is the best Construct, but the Weapon is better for a few reasons I will explain now: Cosmic Weapon grants a power for nothing in return. 
 
I say that because Augmented Ally lets the hero it's on use a power during the start of their turn! The catch is they gotta discard a card to do it. But even then, a second power use is pretty good as Wraith can attest to. Few heroes will not want this, examples being Tachyon, Mr. Fixer, NightMist, and Legacy. Heroes who do want this are Naturalist, Wraith, the Sentinels, and anyone else who has a lot of powers to choose from.
 
*For Naturalist,Natural-Born Vigor opens up a lot of options. Current Form + Base Power (transform) + New Forms power allows you to do one of the three form powers (damage at +1, heal 3, draw 2), transform, then use a second forms power. Natural Forms Power+ Transform + Current Form in any order lets you basically pick which NFP you want use then shift of a better form and use that forms power. Double NFP is also more realistic.
 
*Wraith with a utility Belt means she can can use three of her tools. So Double/Triple Stun Bolt or Infrared Eyepiece shenanigans! Or Razor Ordnance + Knives + Stun Bolt for 5 damage and -1 damage dealt, 11 with Micro Targeting Computer) 
 
*Cosmic Crest
This one grants Immunity to Energy Damage for Captain Cosmic and all his constructs. This usually means that Cosmic himself will have a hard time pinging his own constructs (more on that down the list). What it's really good for however is it 's power to heal up to three constructs 2 HP. Constructs are frail by design so being able to heal them if they begin to break lets them stay a lot longer.
 
An important thing to note is that Cosmic Crest is the only Construct that is Limited.
 
* Vitality Conduit
Now this is an interesting Construct. The target is it next to heals 2 HP whenever Vitality Construct gets hit. Anyone will appreciate the Conduit as it lets them live longer. Being able to heal it gets more bang for the buck. (and no sadly you cannot abuse Cosmic Crest's ability to heal the Conduit after you hit the conduit without outside help, as all of Captain Cosmic's damage is Energy. The same type the crest grants Constructs immunity to)
 
*Dynamic Siphon.
This is another really good Construct. Like vitality Conduit, whenever Dynamic Siphon gets hit for damage, whoever has it gets to use a power. Out of turn powers is sort of one of Comsic's things. Like many of the Constructs noone will complain if they get it. It is that good. Keeping it healthy to abuse it's power is key. If only we had something that can heal Constructs...
 
Deconstruction
The other cards in Cosmic's Deck...reward him for blowing the Constructs up. Several cards of his reward him when Constructs die or allow him to destroy them himself to damage stuff.
 
Harsh Offense is probably one of the best ones, as he mills the top three cards of his deck then deals a target double the number of Constructs revealed. So anywhere from 2 to 6 damage. That can mean the end of a lot of problem targets. 
 
Potent Disruption is almost a reliable minion nuker. Kill a construct, deal damage equal to it's health plus 1. So anywhere from 2 to 5 damage. 
 
In my opinion the Constructs are just so good that once they are on the table you kind of want them to stay on the table. Only destroy constructs when needed, and ask yourself "Will destroying all three of my constructs hurt the villain more than it will hurt my team?"
 
Unflagging Animation will help with the destruction, as each turn you get a free Construct from your trash, then can destroy it. The cost is 1 irreducible Psychic damage (honestly I though the destruction was mandatory. It was good then, now its better). If you have a healer on the team like Setback or even better Argent Adept abuse this to your hearts content. If not, well it depends on the situation. Buffers like Legacy should hold off on the buffing when you want to drop the animation. Avoid playing this card when the Chairman's Contract is running about.
 
Guardians of the Multiverse
 
So, who are good teammates for Captain Cosmic? As a support hero Captain cosmic works good on several teams, but his support is limited to combat: As mentioned above he has no way to destroy Environments or villain Ongoing. That being said he helps keep the team alive.
 
* Mr. Fixer by far is probably one of the best assets Captain Cosmic has at his disposal. Cosmic Weapon boosts Mr. Fixers damage by 2 and lets him get past Melee Immunity without resorting to Grease Monkey Fist or Tire Iron (though GMK is still good as it gives +1 without using up the tool slot.). Even better is if he as Augmented Ally. How good is this? let us list the ways:
 
** Jack Handle lets him deal X damage to every non hero when his hits for damage. If he has CW and Augmented Ally, then he deals 1/3 damage to a target to each target. This is without buffs. Throw in a GMF/Harmony and thats +2 more for a total of 3/5 to everyone for a very nice 4/8 damage to each tarrget.
 
Dual Crowbars also adds in the hilarity. DC gives a natural +1, so he can do with Strike 2-4 damage depending on style and Harmony being out. If Mr. Fixer has Dual Crowbars, Grease Monkey Fist, and Harmony alongside CW and A-Ally he can do 4 with strike and 6 with CW....each instance to two different guys. 10 damage to two guys. And let us not forget the sheer insanity of Dynamic Siphon. If Fixer ever gets to a state where he can do the above make sure you hit Siphon as often as you can outside of Fixers turn  Autonomous Blade just add to the crazy as the first time Fixer deals damage AB hits for 2. So yea even more free damage.
 
NOTES
* DR = Damage Reduction
* AZ = Absolute Zero
* NFP = Natural Forms Power
* CW = Cosmic Weapon
* A-Ally = Augmented Ally

 

#2

Fixer is a beast if you give him both Cosmic Weapon and Augmented Ally. 2 powers to use with all those bonuses he can get from his styles and tools.

I've also put Autonomous Blade on Fanatic when she is using Divine Focus every turn, she can probably get the most use out of it.

Captain Cosmic is one of the few support types I like to play.

#3

I have yet to do that, but Cosmic Weapon/Augme4nted Ally will go straight intoteh combo section. Like I mentioned above CW is jsut so good that really anyone can use it.

#4

I do find it somewhat thematically odd that Captain Cosmic and Mister Fixer get on so well mechanically.  Cosmic Weapon improves Fixer's base damage, Autonomous Blade adds extra damage, and Energy Bracer + Pipe Wrench makes him a great tank.  Add in Wounding Barrier?  Oh, man...Fixer fixes everything!

Its just weird to picture pseudo-Green Lantern picking up pseudo- Luke Cage for a fight!

#5

Addede that bit to the guide. 

#6

Another good combo is Cosmic Crest + Dynamic Syphon.  Oh, you just hit my constructs?  In response I heal them all.  It does mean that none of the other heroes can use the Syphon, but if you're dealing with a lot of mass damage or low HP targetting, it can be invaluable for keeping your constructs alive.

 

Also, Guise is another good target for Autonomous Blade and Dynamic Syphon.  You'll be dealing damage pretty much every turn using his base power (unless there's DR), and if you get out Blatant Reference then he'll be dealing damage every turn, like Fanatic with Heroic Resolve.

 

Finally, I think it's worth noting that Autonomous Blade and Vitality Conduit can be played on any hero target, including other constructs, Unity's bots, and Visionary's Decoy Projection.  This might be useful for the bots, but I can't think of good reasons that you would want to play either card on another construct or the projection.

#7

I do in fact know that. Iprobably should make that clear.

One thing I just though of is that nturalist may not like is that Croc Natrualist wil  have a hrder time getting Cornered Beast's +1 boost

 

I also don't have Guise's deck (can't find it on Amazon) so I have yet to actually play with him and see how he interacts.

#8

Found a good combo last night with Captain Cosmic's "Cosmic Crest," and Visionary's "Twist the Ether".  

Was playing against Skinwalker Gloom, and a lot of his deck has him dealing damage to everyone (at least his flipside does for sure).  I had Captain Cosmic and Visionary on the team.  Used "Twist the Ether" on Gloom and in other strategic locations to force the hard hitting stuff (mostly anything that hit all hero, non-villain, or non-environment targets) to be Energy damage and had "Cosmic Crest" out to make Cap and his constructs immune to it.  

#9

Another combo with Captain Cosmic’s “Cosmic Crest,” and Visionary’s “Twist the Ether” deals with “Unflagging Animation”. You can’t reduce the damage but once you change the damage from psychic to energy CC is immune to it making the card have no downside.

#10

If Fixer has a CW in hand, overdrive also becomes even better. CW, followed by 2 strikes.

#11

With Jack Handle, you do not hit the selected target first, infact you do not even select a target. Mister Fixer automatically changes any time he does damage into dealing all non-hero targets the damage instead.

#12

If PW Captain Cosmic used Absorption at the start of his turn through Augmented Ally, would it immediately expire?

#13

Absorption would trigger and expire before Augmented Ally could be used, since the hero character card was in play before Augmented Ally. I think you could use AA to reapply Absorption because of this. 

#14

The exact wording is "until the start of your NEXT turn," as opposed to Galvanize's "until the start of your turn," so it would not expire, since it is not the next turn yet. However, if you used AA to discard and use Cosmic weapon to destroy a Construct, the last turn's Absorption would have expired by then.

#15

If you intend this to be a reference for other people to use, I would highly suggest a spell check.

#16

Thanks for this. Cant wait to try him with Fixer, the Argent and a heavy hitter (thinking Haka).

#17

Quick comment. Augmented Ally isn't really good for Fixer at all. Fixer only has one power in his entire deck being his innate Strike. An additional power use is kinda useless to Fixer. You would need to give him either Cosmic Weapon or Staff of Anubis to get any milage out of Fixer+Augmented Ally.

Augmented Ally is best used on heros who can get a lot of different powers in play but have limited ways to use all of them such as:

Expatriat (hand size issues must be taken into consideration here however)

Nightmist

Naturalist

Ra

Argent Adept (for even longer Song strings)

Scholar

#18

Note that the section where he talks about using Augmented Ally on Mister Fixer is specifically mentioning how it is good when a Cosmic Weapon is already played on him. I'm going to have to agree with the guide, as I would also suggest the same thing in a lot of cases.

 

#19

I think it is important to mention that Autonomous Blade's damage being dealt by a different target than the hero next to it can sometimes be a negative.

For example Glamour would cause both the damage dealt by the hero, and the damage dealt by the Autonomous Blade to be redirected.  Similarly both damages would trigger Baron's Backlash field.

#20

The combo of Augmented Ally + Cosmic Weapon is really good on just about any hero. I though the section was just taking into account the AA and not the AA+CW pairing. With the combo Fixer makes a great target due to his tools.

I stand by my comment that Augmented Ally, by itself, is rather bad for Fixer. It needs help from other places to make it shine.